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Tuesday, August 12, 2014

No Fruit on Dwarf Orange

Q.
I have a dwarf orange tree planted a little over a year ago. There have been no
oranges on the tree. I have fertilized and I think I've been watering it
correctly. The tree appears to be healthy, just no fruit. Any suggestions?

A.
Dwarf orange is not much help to me. The subject of oranges is huge. I need to
know what type of orange it is, whether it has produced flowers or not or if
the flowers formed but failed to produce fruit. Varieties vary from early
ripening - about 8 months from bloom - to late - up to 16 months from bloom.

There
are three main groups: The normal fruited, without navels and with light orange
colored flesh; the navel oranges, with a distinct navel development at the end;
and blood oranges, with red flesh and juice.

There
are about 73 varieties but US production focuses on Valencia, Washington Navel,
Hamlin, Parson Brown, Pineapple and Temple.

For home gardening there are many
more than these six available from nurseries. Here is a publication from Arizona on citrus varieties.

1 comment:

There is a newer citrus variety sheet that was put out in 2011 that has comments on more varieties of citrus (and other things):University of Arizona: Citrus and Deciduous Fruit Special Supplementhttp://cals.arizona.edu/maricopa/garden/html/general/CitrusSupplement2011.pdf

I would assume "dwarfing" citrus means Flying Dragon or Cuban Shaddock rootstock, though there are others not commonly available in Arizona's restricted area. Either way, while it is possible for a 1 yr old citrus to produce some fruit, I would not be terribly concerned until its 4th year in the ground. Citrus take time to establish themselves.

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